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Updated on 05.05.15

  
 

Oceanography Pages at the Glendale Community College
 

Ocean-115: Sample Quiz 3
 

This 3-unit physical science lecture course examines the physical, chemical and geological aspects of oceans and the oceanic environment. The companion laboratory course is: Ocean-116 (Laboratory Exercises in Physical Oceanography). Also try Biol-125 (Marine Biology) and Biol-126 (Marine Biology Lab.) in order to round up your Marine Sciences learning at the Glendale College.

 

 

Home |  My Book | Physical Geol: Geol-101, Geol-111 | Environmental Geol: Geol-102, Geol-112 | Oceanography: Ocean-115, Ocean-116

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True/False Propositions
Each question below is either TRUE or FALSE

 
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True/False Propositions
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Multiple-Choice Questions
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Short Note Questions

 

True

 False

 
 

Longshore current off the California coast travels polewards from the equator.
 

Longshore current often reduces the coastline’s pre-existing irregularity.
  We measure the biological activity on earth in grams of carbon per square meter per year.
  Biological productivity in the oceans usually requires availability of nutrients in Sun-lit waters.
  Algae, whether marine or on the land, are the most primitive members of the animal kingdom.
  Estuaries and upwellings have intense biological productivity because strong wave activity  dissolves CO2 better in these Sun-lit waters.
  A delta typically forms from the accumulation of land-derived sediments at the mouth of a river.
  Coastal constructions like groins and breakwater walls have no effect on the longshore current.
  Primary biological productivity, measured in grams of carbon per square meter per year, can be autotrophic as well as heterotrophic.
  Sea urchin is a marine vertebrate that generally prefers cold waters.
  The cnidaria like jellyfish, corals and sea anemones are the examples of marine vertebrates.
  Mutualistic symbiosis is the inter-relationship of two species in which one is always an autotroph and the other a heterotroph.
  Countershading is an example of how organisms adapt to their natural habitat.

 

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Multiple-Choice Questions
Each question-item below is a contextually relevant 'TRUE/FALSE' proposition.

 

 
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Suppose an altogether new life-form is discovered. What would be your criteria for grouping it either as a “plant” life or as an “animal” life, in terms of the life as we know it to be?
 

 

Group it under the plant kingdom if it is heterotrophic.

  
 

It is autrotrophic if it synthesizes carbohydrates.
 

It is a bacterial decomposer if it chemosynthesizes.

 
 
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The two pictures of Sandy Beach (shown by cross here), New Jersey, were taken in 1940 (left) and 1963 (right). Can we infer from these that …
 
  the longshore current here flows northwards?
  the longshore current here flows southwards?
  sand accretion rate (i.e., rate of accumulation or deposition) here is ~100 cubic yards per year?
 
 
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Which of the following explain the variations in phytoplanktonic and zooplanktonic activities  graphed here?
 
  Zooplanktons are symbionts, and phytoplanktons the hosts, in the symbiotic relationship displayed here.
  Phytoplanktons bloom in spring and autumn, in these temperate latitude waters, because nutrients then become available in the photic zone.
  The biological productivity on eastern margins of tropical ocean is poor during the El Niño events.
 
 
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The sketch below is a broad outline of different life-forms known to us in order of increasing organic complexity. Which of the following suggest that, while life perhaps began and initially proliferated in the oceans, its continued evolution did not really occur in oceans?
 
  Kelp, a large brown algae (a thallophytae), prefers cooler waters of the temperate latitudes whereas mangroves, the marine spermato-phytae or seed-bearing plants, inhabit the tropical coasts.
  Strictly marine amphibians and birds are unlikely, as their evolution itself implies the adaptation to an environment that was not exclusively marine.
  Oceans abound in thallophytae, and carry some spermatophytae at the continental margins, but have no bryophytae and pteridophytae.
         
 
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As discussed in the class, annual temperature and salinity variations allow the grouping of marine living environment into the four classes shown alongside. Which of the following would you classify as steno-thermal and stenohaline, then?
 
  Estuaries.

Coral reefs.
  Circum-Antarctic waters.

Temperate latitude waters.
       
 
bullet Which of the following inferences can be drawn from the primary biological productivity and total primary production of the different ocean regions that are tabulated here?
 
 

Surface waters have high biological activity all the world over because they are Sunlit.

 
 

The total primary production of open oceans is far less in proportion to their surface area.
 

Total primary production in “upwelling” regions is so small, despite the high biological production "rate",
 
      because primary biological production here occurs only in the ocean surface waters.
       
 
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Does this graph from Robert May’s article in the October 1992 issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN suggest that ...
 
 

we must have more microscopic life-forms than have been identified as yet.
 

the future discoveries of animal species will include more vertebrates than invertebrates.
 

Coastal and divergence regions produce most of the seafood that we need.
 

 

    
 
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What does this graph tells us about the shark attacks?
 
 

Shark attacks are frequent in July in temperate regions of northern hemisphere, and in January in the temperate regions of southern hemisphere, because sharks migrate from northern hemisphere in July to the southern hemisphere in January.
 

As sharks are predators, and typically feed on seals, their migrations across the two hemispheres reflect the pattern of seals' migrations.
 

Shark attacks are most frequent in the summertime at temperate latitudes.
 

 

                
 
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The sea anemone looks like a flower, it also eats other animals and moves about. What look like "petals" are really tentacles, which surround a large slit-like mouth. The tentacles have special capsules found on the tips which sting fish, shrimp, crabs, snails, sea urchins and zooplanktons. Once stung, the prey is paralyzed or stunned and brought to the mouth and eaten. Clown fish (also called the clown anemone fish) are small fish that live among the anemone.

 

While anemone's tentacles kill other fish that touch them, clown fish is immune to this poison, because it is coated with a mucous that acts as the antidote.  Anemone thus protects the clown fish from most predators, who know not to go near the anemone's tentacles, while clown fish helps the anemone by cleaning it (as it eats detritus) and perhaps by scaring away the anemone's predators. This relation between the anemone and the clown fish is an example of …
 

parasitic symbiosis

commensalistic
 

mutualistic symbiosis

 

   symbiosis

 

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Short notes
 If you can answer these questions, you have prepared well for this class test. All that remains to be done is to be able to write 50-75 word answers, with sketches and concept maps, as and when appropriate.
 
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How is a summer beach profile different from a winter profile?  Why?
What’s a beach berm?

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What is foreshore? Backshore? Off-shore? What causes them?
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 What is “longshore transport” or "littoral drift"?  Is the “longshore current” involved?
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How does coastal construction affect the coastline and/or coastal processes?
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How might one define “life?” What is the equation of life? What is meant by trophic levels?
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What is primary productivity?

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Is biological activity equally prolific in all the oceanic environments? What oceanic regions have the most biological productivity? What oceanic regions have the most biological production? If there are regions with the most biological productivity, but not production, why?
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What makes the 'equatorial divergence' regions biologically productive? Does an El Niño event increase or reduce this productivity? Is the Equatorial Counter Current strong or weak then?
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How about the biological productivity of circum-Antarctic region? Why? Is this marine environment eurythermal or stenothermal? Euryhaline or stenohaline? Why?
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How about the biological productivity of shallow estuaries? Why? Is this marine environment eurythermal or stenothermal? Euryhaline or stenohaline? Why?
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How about the biological productivity of coral reefs? Is this marine environment eurythermal or stenothermal? Euryhaline or stenohaline? Why?
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How about the biological productivity of the Arctic region? Is this marine environment eurythermal or stenothermal? Euryhaline or stenohaline? Why?
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How about the biological productivity of the temperate regions? Is this marine environment eurythermal or stenothermal? Euryhaline or stenohaline? Why?
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What is symbiosis? Explain its different kinds. Give suitable examples.
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How do the coral reefs evolve from fringing reefs to barrier reefs and atolls? Does mutualistic symbiosis contribute to this? How?
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What does the distribution of kelp forests and mangroves tell us about the evolution of plant life? Discuss.
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Describe the three classes of fish.
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Discuss why the incidence of shark attacks tends to be high in temperate waters in summer time. Do ocean currents play any role here? Explain how.
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Are you familiar with marine mammals? Which ones? Did they evolve in the oceans or adapted to the marine environment?

 

 

Home |  My Book | Physical Geol: Geol-101, Geol-111 | Environmental Geol: Geol-102, Geol-112  |  Oceanography: Ocean-115, Ocean-116

This site was last updated on 05/05/15